Scrap dealers in Japan have notified today, on February 8 that the prices of used aluminium beverage cans or UBC are down by 8 per cent since the start of this year. Beverage makers’ shift to plastic polyethylene terephthalate bottles is the main reason for this price fall, said the dealers further.
According to scrap dealers in Tokyo and Nagoya, transaction prices this week were at Yen 110-120/kg (($1,010-$1,100/mt) ex-yard, down 8% from a month ago. Six months before, the prices were at about Yen 140-150/kg, noted one dealer.
The decrease in beverage consumption after the summer months reduce the availability of used cans and therefore, the supply. But this also typically failed to push the prices up. Also, the high-grade aluminium price fall in London Metal Exchange from above US$ 2,000 per tonne to US$ 1,900 per tonne resulted in lowered UBC prices.
A scrap dealer said beverage makers seem to be using lesser aluminium cansheets, having launched new products in PET rather than aluminium cans. Even Coca Cola reportedly ditched aluminium cans for carbonated and coffee drinks and started using PET bottles last year. Suntory and Asahi Brewery launched non-alcoholic beer drinks in PET bottles too.
Currently, Japanese UBC is available at US $1,150 per tonne FOB main Japanese ports, Japanese traders said.
According to data from the Japan Aluminium Association, Japan’s cansheet shipment in 2018 had pegged at 407,998 tonnes, down 4.9 per cent year-on-year and the lowest since 1999.
"Currently South Korean UBC market is the highest [in Asia] and there are buyers at US$ 1,160 per tonne to US$ 1,170 per tonne FOB," said the Japanese scrap dealer.
Exports to other destinations have been limited, however, said another Japanese dealer.
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